Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Guest Designing for City Crafter Challenge Blog

Hi, everyone! If you're new to my blog, then welcome. This week I am honored to be the guest designer at City Crafter Challenge blog. The theme this week is a fun one: "Creatures of the Night." There are so many directions that you could go with this challenge. You could make something creepy, with a vampire image, or you could make something cute, with a nocturnal animal image. I chose to go for the cute option and made a card with a goggle-eyed stamped bat.

On my blog I have a tradition of sharing a stash-busting idea each month. This month, I'll be talking about the technique of layering. It's fun to do, it's a popular trend at the moment, and it helps you use up your stash of scrap papers. I used layering on this card in order to draw attention to my bat image, which is rather small. The layers behind it help it stand out and look important and interesting. I built up this layered mat using just scraps. This was a great way to use up lots of leftover bits of paper.

I added a heavy coat of black ink to the edges of each of my paper layers. Not only does this play up the nighttime/darkness aspect of the challenge, but it also make the rich colors of the papers really pop.

To add darkness to my card base, I randomly swiped on black gesso to make an interesting background. I also painted a scalloped chipboard frame with the same black gesso.

My paper layers had a lot of green in them, so I felt like the chipboard frame and the background needed a touch of green, for the sake of unity. I added this green by stamping with bubble wrap and green metallic paint. After the paint was dry, I put my card together, first placing the layered papers on the card base, then adhering the chipboard frame, which I had dressed up with bokeh vellum and enamel dots. I topped it all off with the cute stamped bat, and I added a sentiment and a couple of stamped stars as well.

I'll leave you with one last look at the card. If you feel inspired, then go ahead and play along with the "Creatures of the Night" challenge at City Crafter Challenge Blog. The challenge runs for a week. Happy crafting!

It's amazing how the techniques you've used really spotlight the bat, even though he is relatively small. I love your rich colours and the distressing techniques. What a great card! Thank you for being a fabulous Guest Designer at City Crafter.

Ooooh, Denise! Your card is absolutely amazing! So cool, creative and spooktacular! I love your take on their theme and big congrats on being their guest designer, too! And I want to thank you so much for your wonderful words left at my blog, too. HUGS!